Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0Bayfield has higher unemployment (6.5%) than 78% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Bayfield C; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in five work in Bayfield itself; outside it, Durango draws the most (37%, 16 miles). Measured by household income, Bayfield is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Bayfield in brief
Jobs in Bayfield have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Bayfield went from 537 in 2013 to 1,163 in 2023, +117%. The jobs ↓
Bayfield trades workers with the towns around it
Bayfield has about as many jobs (1,163) as working residents (1,307), but they are mostly different people: 1,072 residents leave for work each day while 928 people come in. Only 20% of the jobs in Bayfield are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
37% of Bayfield works in Durango
484 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Durango, 16 miles away. That’s twice as many as work in Bayfield itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Bayfield are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 25 across Colorado. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Colorado worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Bayfield earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bayfield is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #129 of 159 in Colorado. Household income holds Bayfield’s grade up ($93,125, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bayfield could be anywhere from D to B+.
What the 1,163 jobs in Bayfield are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bayfield, 2013 → 2023: 537 → 1,163. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bayfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Bayfield, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 1,072 residents head out to work, 235 work right here, and 928 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.89 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Bayfield’s residents
Where Bayfield clocks in
37% of workers
2% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The trip to work from Bayfield: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bayfield workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,330 commuters (the 17% who work from home are left out). Across Colorado: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The commute from Bayfield, by distance
About 19% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Bayfield is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bayfield is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #57 of 159 in Colorado. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.4% across Colorado, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,600 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.9% of Bayfield households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bayfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bayfield is 2,970th among 4,618 U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Stepping Stone CO | 3,137 | $224K | 0.0% | 2.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Sierra Ridge CO | 3,663 | $158K | 0.1% | 2.4% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Genesee CO | 3,778 | $187K | 2.4% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,968 | Chemung NY | 2,267 | $65K | 8.5% | 4.6% | 6% | C |
| 2,969 | Riverdale CA | 3,653 | $57K | 12.6% | 3.9% | 12% | C |
| 2,970 | Bayfield CO | 2,974 | $93K | 8.4% | 6.5% | 18% | C |
| 2,971 | West Terre Haute IN | 2,160 | $54K | 10.5% | 10.6% | 5% | C |
| 2,972 | Enosburgh VT | 2,780 | $64K | 13.9% | 1.9% | 12% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bayfield, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bayfield: questions
What is the median household income in Bayfield?
$93,125 (±$17,183) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bayfield?
8.4%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bayfield?
17 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bayfield work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Durango (37%, 16 mi), Denver (2%, 228 mi), Grand Junction (2%, 139 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bayfield walkable?
Bayfield is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bayfield without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bayfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bayfield
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.